The first wargames were probably of Sumerian or Egyptian in origin, based on archaeological finds while Sun Tzu, of The Art of War fame, is credited with the creation of a game called Wei Hai, meaning encirclement. Games like Chaturanga in India, possibly the basis for the modern game of chess, used representations of foot soldiers, cavalry, elephants and chariots, all important arms in the armies of that region.

A variant of chess was developed in Germany called Koenigspeil, or "King's Game", published in 1664. This 'military chess` was the first of a continuing series of games produced in Germany, including other chess derived games  that contained over 1,600 squares, each representing different types of terrain, right up to the  Kreigspeil (War Game) series started in the 1800's.

Baron Von Reisswitz, a civilian war counsellor to the Prussian Court, discarded the chess style of games and used a sand table in which actual terrain could be modelled.  With playing pieces made of wood, scaled to represent troop frontages, Von Reisswitz through a series of fortuitous meetings, was asked to present his game to King Frederick  Wilhelm. The King was impressed but within a few years, the game had lost its appeal.

The Baron's son, a Lieutenant of Artillery, took his fathers ideas and developed them. He published in 1824 a set of rules "Instructions for the Representation of Tactical Manoeuvres under the Guise of  a Wargame.

Once again the publication came to the notice of royalty, Prince Wilhelm who recommended  the game to the Chief of Staff. Although luke warm to the idea at first, the general, von Muffling immediately saw its potential and recommended the game to the whole army in the forces publication.

Unfortunately, the younger Von Reisswitz made enemies, was transferred away from the political arena, and in 1827, committed suicide.

Kriegsspiel carried on in various formats, ultimately leading to the basic training that many experts attributed to the lead to the defeat of the Austrians in 1866, and the victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 70-71.  Around the world, military leaders started to  take notice what the  Germans had.

Played on accurate maps, with an  umpire that ran the game and a system that meant that the training generals only got the information that would realistically be available, it proved to be invaluable tool.

The birth of the "hobby" of wargaming has been attributed to Herbert George Wells, writer of such stories as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds. In 1913 he wrote a book called Little Wars, which described a system for playing battle games  using toy soldiers made of lead, and spring loaded cannon that fired wooden projectiles.  With model houses, miniature trees and very simplistic rules that varied the number of shots from the cannon for each arm of the armed forces, the book received widespread attention.

Another writer/publicist, Fred Jane of Jane's Fighting Ships fame, wrote a set of rules that was in the same vain as Wells, relying on actual action than the tables, logarithms and more clear cut analytical nature of Kreigsspeil.

Ship models, which had to be recognised by the players just as in real life, were manoeuvred across a playing board marked off in squares representing 2,000 yards. For firing, card representations were pulled  across a table and hit by a striker, a 15" long wooden strip of wood with a pin in one end. If the pin made a whole in the silhouette, the ship was hit and the armour penetration of the shell was cross-referenced with the armour protection for the part of the vessel.




















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